Mental Health and Dementia Clinical Network Team

David Soodeen, Clinical Director of Mental Health

Peter Bagshaw, Clinical Director for Dementia
Peter has been a GP for over 30 years, and is currently a partner at the Willow Surgery, Downend. He was previously Senior Clinical Fellow in the Department of Primary Care in Bristol, and is currently Clinical Lead in Mental Health, Dementia, Learning Difficulties and Adult Safeguarding for South Gloucestershire CCG. In this capacity he has led the introduction of innovative patient care pathways, which are now being taken up as national models.
He sits on a number of boards including the Bristol Health Partners Dementia HIT, the Dementia Challenge Reference Board, the IAPT Expert Reference Group and his local Minehead Dementia Action Alliance .

Dr Frank Burbach, South West EIP Programme Clinical Lead
Frank is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. He is a senior operational manager and the clinical lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis, 0-25 Service and the Triangle of Care. He is also the University of Exeter’s Family Interventions Programme Lead.
He has a Diploma in Marital & Family Therapy and is also a registered Cognitive-Behavioural Psychotherapist. He is a member of the Triangle of Care national steering group and is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Family Therapy. Dr Burbach has a Ph.D from Plymouth University on developing systemically-oriented mental health services and has published numerous papers and book chapters on family inclusive practice, family interventions and early intervention in psychosis.

Christine Curle, Clinical Lead for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Christine joined the network in September 2016 and has been the Professional Lead for Child Psychology & Psychological Therapies for Devon Integrated Children’s Service since 2008. She joined the NHS as a clinical psychologist working with children and families in a variety of settings 25 years ago and for nine of those years was seconded part time to Exeter University to lead the academic programme on the doctoral training for clinical psychologists. She is the clinical lead for Children and Young People’s Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies for Devon and has worked both in the South West and with the National Team to develop and embed the CYP IAPT programme.
Christine has a strong commitment to shared and compassionate clinical leadership within the NHS, to effective inter-professional working and to service user participation as the key to positive change.

James Fortune, Local Authority Lead for Children and Young People’s Mental Health Improvement
James has the role that is all about galvanising local authorities in CAMHS transformation, working collaboratively with Clinical Commissioning Groups, schools and other partners.
James started his career in youth and community work and has since spent time in a variety of operational roles including education welfare and alternative education, supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people.
Joining the network in August 2016, James has spent the last seven years in strategic commissioning for children’s services. He is currently the Lead Commissioner for Children’s Services in Wiltshire – with responsibility for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing, his role involves joint working across Wiltshire Council and the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group.
James is passionate about children and young people’s meaningful involvement in decision making and is a strong advocate for harnessing the voluntary and community sector in the provision of local services.

Julie Smee, Children and Young People Programme Manager
Julie Smee is the Programme Manager leading the Children and Young People’s Mental Health agenda across the South West Clinical Network. She has led and implemented transformation projects across Networks for over 15 years and in addition to her commissioning and provider experience in both adult and children’s services, she is a professionally qualified nurse. This experience is underpinned by her academic achievements, having gained an MSc in Healthcare Policy and Management, PG Diploma in Public Health and BA (Hons) in Nursing Studies.
Julie has an energetic, can-do approach and cares passionately about developing excellence across the NHS.

Gayle Bridgman, Quality Improvement Programme Manager
Gayle has worked in the NHS for 20 years, initially in performance management and commissioning across primary care and acute services before moving into service management. Gayle has been working in clinical networks since 2006 when she joined a large cancer network in London before moving to the South West in 2010 to take on a new challenge working as manager of the neonatal network. This experience has made Gayle a committed advocate of clinical networks having seen the benefits they can deliver to patient services. Gayle has been working in mental health service improvement since the inception of the clinical network in 2013 and is the network management lead for IAPT and dementia.

Lynne Dickson, Quality Improvement Lead
Lynne has worked in the NHS for 25 years, initially within general practice where she held various roles from receptionist to fundholding manager. From there Lynne moved into PCG & PCTs providing project management support to Directors/Senior Managers and Chief Executive across a range of work programmes from risk management to human resources. As Corporate Services Manager for Property Services, she was responsible for the operational management of the support services teams across multiple corporate offices whilst delivering a focused maintenance/preventative estate programme. This role also included management responsibility of Lyngford House Conference Centre, Taunton where she managed the staff, business and a sensitive mothball programme to one of the familiar NHS building in Somerset. Lynne joined NHS England in February 2016 and has been working in the nursing directorate as Quality Safety Lead overseeing all aspects of patient safety including serious incident reporting. Lynne is passionate about working in the NHS and is dedicated to contributing to the quality and safety of healthcare service delivery. Following the completion of her stretch assignment, Lynne joined the Network as Quality Improvement Lead in 2018.